PERVOL has successfully established a new type of volatile sampling system that couples a robotic system to a custom airflow system and a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS). This system is capable of recording volatile fingerprints of over 100 different volatile sources with a temporal resolution below 30 minutes, thus setting a new standard in the field of plant volatile research and leading to a patent filed by an involved SME.
PERVOL has also successfully uncovered how maize plants integrate two volatile cues with complementary information value, indole and hexenyl acetate, into strong defense responses an enhanced resistance against chewing herbivores. Further, using transgenic rice plants impaired in early defense signaling, PERVOL demonstrated that indole-induced herbivore resistance is due to its enhancing effects on early defense signaling, resulting in higher jasmonate production upon attack. PERVOL furthermore identified the map kinase MPK3 to be essential for indole-mediated resistance priming. Thus, this work identifies early signaling components that are required for the perception of herbivory-induced volatiles in plants. These findings have been published in peer reviewed journals. PERVOL has also uncovered a series of novel candidate genes with unknown function that are likely involved in plant volatile perception, to be investigated further in the future.
PERVOL has made significant advances in understanding the potential and biological impact of plant volatile signaling. It uncovered that indole not only reprograms plant immunity, but also herbivory immunity and defense, a novel phenomenon which was then demonstrated to shape tritrophic interactions. This finding has been published in the peer reviewed literature. Further experiments revealed potentially important spatiotemporal perception patterns and drought-related interactions, both of which will be investigated in depth in follow-up experiments.
